Poland's Royal Castle Upgrades to Iconyx

Two Renkus-Heinz Iconyx digitally steerable loudspeaker systems and a building-wide digital audio network have been provided for Poland's most historic building by M. Ostrowski Company, system integrator and Renkus-Heinz distributor for Poland.

Built between 1518-1619 as the residence of Sigismund III Vasa of Poland, Warsaw's Royal Castle has a rich and turbulent history. An imposing Baroque building by the river Vistula, the castle was fought over and repeatedly plundered by the Brandenburgian and Swedish armies. Having been rebuilt several times in the 18th century, it was almost completely destroyed by the Nazis in 1944.

Thirty years later, the fabric of the building had been reconstructed, and 1988 saw the entire refurbishment completed. The imposing façade, facing Castle Square, is 295' long, with Sigismund's Tower forming a magnificent centerpiece, flanked by two smaller spires at either end. The castle is now a national treasure, serving as a museum as well as a venue for major events such as official visits, state meetings, concerts and musical events.

Its 300-seat ballroom is a grand setting for these events, while a 180-seat concert hall serves for lectures and conferences, together with recorded playback and live musical performances. In both venues, clear speech intelligibility has proved to be an essential component - particularly during official events.

The Polish acoustician Tadeusz Fidecki, PhD received a research grant from the Ministry of Science and Education for an experimental project to improve speech intelligibility with acoustical and electro-acoustic treatments. Research into the ballroom's and concert hall's acoustics also became the subjects of several master theses at Warsaw University of Technology.

The building's interior has been restored to its 18th-century grandeur with the aid of pre-war photographs. The ballroom's polished wood floor, mirrored and marble surfaces, and its many windows amounted to a major acoustical headache.

"Given the materials used in the construction and refurbishment, as well as the sheer size of the halls, we knew the first task was to tackle the acoustics," said Fidecki. AFMG's EASE, with the Aura module, was used to analyze the acoustics of both rooms, measuring an RT of over three seconds.

Systems integrators M. Ostrowski Company were called in to provide system design, with a team headed by project and design manager Michal Poplawski and Tomasz Rudzki, scientist at The Fryderyk Chopin University of Music.

A fully digital system was specified because of the long cable runs between the halls, control rooms, and main system rack, and the team's desire to provide versatile routing. Multiple combination panels in each hall make patching-in simple, and two mobile racks provide great flexibility.

To address the acoustics without physically altering or treating the opulent interior, Renkus-Heinz Iconyx IC16R digitally steerable arrays were specified for the ballroom, with two IC8R units covering the concert hall. Each Iconyx system is fed by redundant CobraNet inputs, which also allow an engineer to work with Renkus-Heinz's RHAON networking software via any combination panel. A Yamaha LS9-16 mixing console in each hall is equipped with an MY-16CII CobraNet interface card.

Given the lavish décor of each hall, it was also essential for the loudspeakers to blend in architecturally, and Renkus-Heinz finished the cabinets in a special color, Oyster White. "The Iconyx are a perfectly architectural fit as they are almost invisible," says Poplawski, adding: "But most importantly, we're achieving STI results of about 0.65 in the main audience areas, despite the acoustics."

A main distribution and routing rack carries all the analog I/O, with A/D conversion via a Yamaha DME8-iC digital processor and Yamaha DME8-oC CA converter, and redundant HP switches that route signals to all locations, allowing a Yamaha LS9-16 console to be connected in each hall or the control room two floors above the halls.

Wireless and wired microphones are used with receivers in the distribution rack, while analog system outputs are used for monitoring and to support outside broadcast requirements. Remote laptop control of both the console and wireless microphone receivers is available via a dedicated Wi-Fi network, and events can be recorded on an RME Fireface 800, or with mp3 compression on a USB memory stick direct from the desk.

A Blu-Ray player and Yamaha DME24N digital processor, also fitted with an MY-16CII card, allowing it to work in either stand-alone mode or with the digital network, reside in a second rack. Every DME24N input channel can also be routed to the mixing desk in any location via CobraNet. It also handles routing for a mobile 5.1 system.

Poplawski comments, "The system can be configured with both local and remote processing in each hall depending on the requirements of each event, and with the ability to tune the Iconyx arrays instantly for speech and music applications via separate presets in the RHAON software, it's exceptionally flexible. The audio team at the Royal Castle is very happy with the outcome and is satisfied that it will meet their needs in the years ahead."

Renkus-Heinz PowerNet PN-Series loudspeakers provide additional coverage, with eight PN82/9 systems for over-balcony fill, and two PN151/4 systems flown from the venue's soaring 60-ft high ceiling. A separate speech system was also installed, utilizing 10 Iconyx IC8-R and two IC16-R systems.